Page 286 - Comparing Media Systems THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS
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                                                TheFutureofthe ThreeModels

                                and politics, or might it play some independent role? To a large extent,
                                media system change is certainly a result of the deeply rooted processes
                                summarized previously, which have undercut the social basis of mass
                                parties and of group solidarity and of a media system connected with
                                them. It is clearly also true, however, that processes of change internal
                                to the media system have been at work and it is quite plausible that
                                changes in European media systems have contributed to the process
                                of secularization. It is common in the literature on decline of political
                                parties in Europe to point to the media system as one key source of
                                change:


                                   . . . [N]ew technologies and ... changes in the mass media ... have
                                   enabled party leaders to appeal directly to voters and thereby un-
                                   derminedtheneedfororganizationalnetworks ... (Mair1997:39).
                                   Increasingly ... media have taken over [information and oversight
                                   functions] because they are considered unbiased providers of in-
                                   formation and because electronic media have created more conve-
                                   nient and pervasive delivery systems. ... The growing availability
                                   of political information through the media has reduced the costs
                                   of making informed decisions (Flanagan and Dalton 1990: 240–2).

                                   The mass media are assuming many of the information functions
                                   that political parties once controlled. Instead of learning about an
                                   election at a campaign rally or from party canvassers, the mass
                                   media have become the primary source of campaign information.
                                   Furthermore, the political parties have apparently changed their
                                   behavior in response to the expansion of mass media. There has
                                   been a tendency for political parties to decrease their investments
                                   in neighborhood canvassing, rallies, and other direct contact activ-
                                   ities, and devote more attention to campaigning through the media
                                   (Dalton and Wattenberg 2000: 11–12).


                                   The element that emerges most strongly in these accounts is the rise
                                of electronic media, which is considered to have undercut the role of
                                political parties, and presumably also would have undercut the role of
                                churches, trade unions, and other institutions of socialization. As we
                                have seen in the preceding chapters, however, the electronic media were
                                organized originally in Europe under political authority, and in most
                                systems political parties had considerable influence on broadcasting, as
                                did“sociallyrelevantgroups”insomesystems,mostnotablytheGerman.


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